Diss. Karlstad : Karlstads universitet, 2008.

AN ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION OF ASHLEY GREEN, for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in English, presented on November 5, 2012, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. TITLE: TRAUMA INSCRIBED ON THE BODY IN PAT BARKER'S REGENERATION TRILOGY MAJOR PROFESSOR: Dr. Michael Molino In the nineties, British writer, Pat Barker, completed a sequence of novels entitled The Regeneration Trilogy in which she set to the task of understanding trauma in relation to our notions, or mis-notions rather, of WWI. In this trilogy, the author does not simply engage a discussion of the past through the integration of historical figures, personal recordings, and accurate accounts of society and the Western Front during 1917-1918; but through the complexity of her characters' personalities and lives a rather comprehensive evaluation of trauma and its effects on the subject emerges. In the initial book in her sequence, Regeneration, Barker is specifically interested in the ways in which the physical symptoms of war neurosis communicate the nature of an internal crisis, and how those very same manifestations enlighten our understanding of the obstacles of traumatic communication. Dr. Rivers's role as a therapist who endorses the "Talking Cure" establishes language as the key element to the process recovery, proposing, then, it is through a dialectical relationship that the wound[ed] can speak; language, for Barker, is the link reconnecting individuals to their trauma, subjects to their past and present selves, and, ultimately, the soul to its body. It is really through the process of integrating history and fiction that the author is able to evaluate the full breadth of Great Britain's traumatization during WWI. As Barker moves through her trilogy, her observations of trauma increase in scope as Dr. Rivers moves from Craiglockhart, Scotland, ultimately, to London working at the Empire Hospital with Dr. Henry Head. Initially, Dr. Rivers treats specifically shell-shocked soldiers but by The Eye in the Door, Rivers begins treating officers of a different branch, pilots of the Royal Flying Corps; and by the final book in the sequence, The Ghost Road, the doctor applies his clinical theories to both physically and emotionally damaged patients. In direct relation to Dr. Rivers's greater perspective, Barker also brings to light her observations of total traumatization by depicting her female characters as subverted elements of society and locales of crisis. In addition, Barker represents culture as one that also displays obvious clues of violence and traumatization. Ultimately, Barker does all this to make a comprehensive observation of trauma: the physical always reveals evidence of its experience. Through reading the material of -- and written on the body--we can only begin to understand fully the complex nature of trauma and the way in which it has entirely disrupted, yet composed our historical identities.

The (in)visible Briseis. A comparative literary analysis of the relationship between Achilles, Patroclus and Briseis in Homer’s Iliad and Pat Barker’s The Silence of the Girls The purpose of this essay is to compare the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus in Homer’s Iliad (700s BC) and Pat Barker’s The Silence of the Girls (2019), while also looking into the role of Briseis and how the story differs when it is told from her point of view. Through the analysis I find that the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus have always been intense. I argue, however, that the intensity is given more depth and meaning when described from different perspectives, such as that of Briseis and Achilles himself, as is done in The Silence of the Girls. With the help of Kevin Goddard’s theory of the male gaze, the perspective of both Briseis and Achilles become invaluable for interpreting the relationship between the characters, as well as the characters themselves. For Achilles, the gaze of his mother influences him in a negative way in his relationship with Briseis, while the gaze of Patroclus causes changes in his mentality. I argue that this has to do with the Oedipus complex. For once, Briseis is not invisible and even though she continues to be the slave everyone expects her to be, she is, through the gaze, able to create her own story once that of Achilles ends. It is still the story of the great Achilles, but one in which he is also human.

In 1991, British novelist Patricia Barker published Regeneration, the first of three novels that portrayed the exploits of both factual and fictional characters during the darkest days of WWI. Barker's Eye in the Door (1993), followed by The Ghost Road (1995) for which she won the Booker Prize for Fiction, completed the series that explored the effects of combat on the human psyche. What emerges as a dominant feature of Barker's war novels is her depiction of the ocular sense. Reminiscent of Orwellianism, Barker's texts contain a seemingly ubiquitous ocular presence. For example, neurasthenic patients are scrutinized by army psychiatrists, objectors and subversives are spied upon or imprisoned so that their activities may be observed, and combatants are faced with the challenge of reconciling the horrifying events they have witnessed in combat. This study investigates the role and importance of Pat Barker's depiction of eyes and visuality in her war trilogy. The overreaching goal of the thesis to examine Barker's aestheticized notion of ocularity. It is my aim to come some conclusions about how vision / ocularity signal the emergence of a few central themes in the texts such as power relationships, objectification, exposure and the transgression of boundaries. The social and linguistic theories of Michael Foucault, Roland Barthes, Georges Bataille, Martin Jay and others who have addressed the themes of perception and ocular symbolism will be introduced into my discussion with the aim of providing a theoretic foundation to many of my assertions. Chapters will begin with an interpretation of a piece of theoretical writing by one of these authors followed by an analysis of Barker's texts that incorporates the major tenets of that theory. These tenets will serve as a basis to my discussion and it is my hope that, through the creative application of theoretical writing, I will address a number of aspects of Barker's work, especially in relation to her ocular imagery, that that have thus far gone unexplored.

This thesis takes issue with Fredric Jameson’s suggestion that contemporary science fiction is sending back “more reliable information [about current political and economic organisation] than an exhausted realism” and it develops an alternative Marxist defense of contemporary realist fiction. Can realism's techniques adequately represent the complexity of contemporary political organization? The thesis presents readings of key realist texts — by Pat Barker, Maurice Gee, Kerstin Hensel, James Kelman and David Peace — testing their potential to produce the knowledge of history, industrial politics and the metropolis traditionally central to literary realism’s concerns. (For complete abstract open document).

<p>Pat Barker’s fictional account of the Great War, The Regeneration Trilogy, completed in 1995, is considered to be her most important work to date and has captured the imagination of the reading public as well as attracting considerable scholarly attention. Although the trilogy appears to be written in the realistic style of the traditional historical novel, Barker approaches the past with certain preoccupations from 1990s Britain and rewrites the past as seen through these contemporary lenses. Consequently, the trilogy illustrates not only how the past returns to haunt the present, but also how the present reciprocally haunts perceptions of the past. The haunting quality of the trilogy is developed through an extensive, intricate pattern of intertextuality. This reciprocal haunting at times breaks the realistic framework of the narrative, giving rise to anachronisms.</p><p>This study offers a reading of trauma, class, gender and psychology as thematic areas where intertexts are activated, allowing Barker to revise and re-accentuate stories of the past. Drawing on Michel Foucault’s concept of discourse and Mikhail Bakhtin’s notion of dialogue, it focuses on the trilogy as an interactive link in an intertextual chain of communication about the Great War. Received versions of history are confirmed, expanded on and sometimes questioned. What is innovative about the trilogy is how Barker incorporates discursive formations not only from the Great War period, but from the whole twentieth century. The Great War is regenerated and transformed as it passes from one dialogic context to another. My reading shows that the trilogy presents social structures from different historical epochs through dialogism and diachronicity, making the present-day matrices of power and knowledge that continue to surround, determine and limit people’s lives highly visible. The Regeneration Trilogy regenerates the past, simultaneously confirming Barker’s claim that the historical novel can also be “a backdoor into the present”.</p>

Pat Barker’s fictional account of the Great War, The Regeneration Trilogy, completed in 1995, is considered to be her most important work to date and has captured the imagination of the reading public as well as attracting considerable scholarly attention. Although the trilogy appears to be written in the realistic style of the traditional historical novel, Barker approaches the past with certain preoccupations from 1990s Britain and rewrites the past as seen through these contemporary lenses. Consequently, the trilogy illustrates not only how the past returns to haunt the present, but also how the present reciprocally haunts perceptions of the past. The haunting quality of the trilogy is developed through an extensive, intricate pattern of intertextuality. This reciprocal haunting at times breaks the realistic framework of the narrative, giving rise to anachronisms. This study offers a reading of trauma, class, gender and psychology as thematic areas where intertexts are activated, allowing Barker to revise and re-accentuate stories of the past. Drawing on Michel Foucault’s concept of discourse and Mikhail Bakhtin’s notion of dialogue, it focuses on the trilogy as an interactive link in an intertextual chain of communication about the Great War. Received versions of history are confirmed, expanded on and sometimes questioned. What is innovative about the trilogy is how Barker incorporates discursive formations not only from the Great War period, but from the whole twentieth century. The Great War is regenerated and transformed as it passes from one dialogic context to another. My reading shows that the trilogy presents social structures from different historical epochs through dialogism and diachronicity, making the present-day matrices of power and knowledge that continue to surround, determine and limit people’s lives highly visible. The Regeneration Trilogy regenerates the past, simultaneously confirming Barker’s claim that the historical novel can also be “a backdoor into the present”.

The year 2014 will mark the centennial of the outbreak of World War I in August 1914. This historic anniversary will likely provoke several discussions from all fields in the humanities concerning the Great War's significance on contemporary culture through history, visual art, and in the case of this essay: literature. In light of this event, any serious discussion among scholars should undeniably begin with how the war continues to be represented today through a thorough, contemporary analysis of its many key literary texts. This essay will examine, in this regard, how past and contemporary discourses in literary theory-primarily concerned with how an individual combatant subject attempts to construct and understand their own traumatic experiences through poetic and literary discourse-can continue to incite discussion on why literature of the Great War and its influential role in defining how it has come to be understood in our cultural memory remains relevant even today. Under the guiding influence of Paul Fussell's classic The Great War and Modern Memory, I will discuss how three important works-a poetry collection, a memoir, and a modern work of historical fiction-all contribute to how the war has become represented as a tragic rupture in history that reversed the idea of human progress and left an entire generation disillusioned in its aftermath, regardless of the historical veracity of this legacy. The texts I will be examining include: select poems of Wilfred Owen, Goodbye to All That by Robert Graves, and Regeneration by Pat Barker. In addition to this, I will conclude with an analysis of how a contemporary reading of these texts can contribute to a larger discussion of the crisis of historicity in our current post-modern cultural landscape.